‘Scandal,’ Season 3, Episode 6, ‘Icarus’: TV Recap

“Scandal’s” Liv may be flying too close to the sun in her quest for the truth about her mother’s death. She’s got the broad strokes of the truth: her father’s in charge of B613, her lover was not at Operation Remington and her mother was killed in a plane crash. These pieces paint the background of her history, but no one will tell her what it means.

When Liv questions her father about his last words to her mother, she’s looking to absolve some of the pent-up guilt she’s been harboring for years. She didn’t tell her mother she loved her before she left on her final trip. That can eat away at you when you stop to think about it. And now Liv has people to take out her anger on. But will they ever give her the truth?

One is falling back on plausible deniability: “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Fitz says. The other is only allowing a single question with one-word answers: “No,” Papa Pope did not order Mama Pope killed. They’re both inches away losing Liv completely.

Liv’s drunk dial to her father was a great scene. As she’s rewatching crash footage and reliving that day as a 12 year old, you can see how much her mother’s death shook her. “I can’t form attachments to people because my mother is dead and my father is that thing that goes bump in the night,” she tells him between giant glasses of wine. “The past is the past and it’s best that you leave it there,” he says. That Papa Pope, always full of words of discouragement.

But there are still so many questions about what happened. If he didn’t order the plane shot down, did he know it was going to happen? Why did Fitz have to do it? And did Papa Pope have some hand in getting Liv hired for Cyrus out of law school?

It’s interesting that they have Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe on “Friends,” in the cast. Because a lot of what happens in this episode reminds me of when everyone found out about Monica and Chandler. “They don’t know that we know they know we know.”

As Cyrus pointed out earlier, “This is a Greek tragedy in the making.”

But Cy was talking about Mellie’s plan to bring Olivia back into the fold. Cyrus is cautiously happy. Fitz is practically wagging his tail when Olivia comes to him in the Oval Office, until she shuts him down with questions about Operation Remington. He says he’s willing to talk about them as a couple and how he feels for her as a man. When it comes to top-secret classified operations, that’s when he’s got to put on his commander-in-chief hat and feign ignorance. So Liv hops on the Josie Marcus bandwagon. “White hats, people,” she tells her team.

Josie’s got her own issues. We’ve been used to seeing backstabbers, monsters and even killers on this show. Josie is a nice gal in need of funds to build a campaign. “Nice doesn’t get you president unless you want to be president of Candyland,” Liv tells her. Our Lady in White sets Josie up to glad hand a few corporate entities. But Josie’s got to do the work in an interview with James to get more big bucks on her side.

Josie is not an campaign attack dog because is doesn’t ring true to her personality. Liv shows her a Reston TV spot reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s 3 a.m. phone call ad during the 2008 election, but this time with a quivering woman’s hand. Sure the ad was fake, but James’s opening bumper and innocuous comments about her “lovely home” helped serve Liv’s ultimate purpose: awaken the dragon in Josie. I loved it! She called out Reston for his sexist ways of reminding the world that she’s a woman in order to prey on people’s stereotypes of the fragile, weaker sex. She even calls out James for feeding into the stereotype by calling her a “war winner” instead of a veteran. Josie’s not here for your sexist rhetoric, and I can’t wait to see more.

I don’t know how much more we’re going to see of Jake and his seemingly 900 lives. After Liv’s flashback to her father crying over the plane crash and her talk with him about his last words, she’s having a hard time thinking Papa Pope would kill Mama Pope. So Jake digs a little deeper. “We’re only digging up dirt on the most powerful man in the world,” he says. “How dangerous could that be?”

Jake’s search leads him to an old flame who works at Langley. She interrupts his workout (so rude!) to have him meet her in what appears to be the poorest guarded container yard known to man. A shady guy that was following them earlier is literally two steps behind Jake, putting a slug in the dome of Jake’s armed and informationless no-name flame. Jake’s escorted back to the White House to see his rescuer Fitz. Jake also presses Fitz for more information, but Fitz ain’t budging.

Fitz drops by Liv’s house, and she goes straight back to Operation Remington. He tries to deflect with the idea that they’ll always be together on the campaign trail. She tells him about the plane crash that happened at the same time of the operation and how her mother was “one of the bodies in the ocean.” Fitz’s face collapses, but he lets out a weak “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Side thoughts:

* Sally “Team Player” Langston’s bid for the Oval Office was short-lived, and I’m OK with that. Her plan with Leo to get a bible-thumper on their side was a little weak. But it was fun to see them out-smarted by Cyrus, who was pulling the thumper’s puppet strings, and Mellie, who knows how they can use the VP and her lascivious husband.

* Charlie’s training Quinn to become part of B613? I guess that’s interesting. It will at least make her more interesting and give some purpose to her whack-a-doodle behavior.

* Josie’s sister/daughter is awfully even-keeled seeing as how she recently found out the truth of her maternity. I think she may have forgiven her sister/mom a little too quickly.

* I really hope whatever Cyrus is planning for taking down Josie doesn’t affect Harrison. After two seasons of pure loyalty, we’re finally getting into his backstory, which involves a man named Adnan, his newly created visa and his high disregard for Harrison’s life .

* Line of the night—James: “You’re a shameless monster!” Cyrus: “Who loves you dearly!”

So, what did you think? Will Huck and Quinn be besties again before Charlie can get his claws into her? Do you think Josie will be a good foe for Fitz on the campaign trail? And will Leo now have to come back hat in hand to the White House for a job as a campaign manager?